Daily Workshop Practices That Support the Common Core State Standards

“These are the tried and true lessons I return to year after year. The lessons that students said made a difference in their writing and that will bring power and beauty to your students’ writing and to your writing classroom.”

—Leslie Blauman, author of The Inside Guide to the Reading-Writing Classroom

“What’s wrong with a little mentorship?” Leslie Blauman asks. Reap the benefits of her years as a Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC) teacher with 31 of her best kid-tested and approved lessons that lead to great student writing. Not only are these research-based writing lessons kids’ self-proclaimed favorites, they incorporate mentor texts, support the Common Core State Standards, and are research-based.

Four lesson clusters reflect Leslie’s core beliefs for teaching:

• writing narratives, informative texts, and opinion pieces/arguments
• a love of language, word play, vocabulary, and poetry
• writing fictional narratives
• writing research-based nonfiction.

Use these generative lessons as a springboard—giving them your personal stamp—and watch as they lead to great writing for authentic purposes and in testing situations.